New CPO Evaluation Takes Effect This September
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS080630-06
Release Date: 6/30/2008 2:29:00 PM
By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist (SW/AW) Bill Houlihan, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The chief of naval personnel announced the Chief Petty Officer Mission, Vision and Guiding Principles will form the basis upon which chief, senior chief and master chief petty officers will be evaluated.
Vice Adm. Mark E. Ferguson directed via NAVADMIN (176/08) June 27 that commanding officers employ a new E7-E9 Evaluation and Counseling record (CHIEFEVAL), starting with the Sept. 15 chief petty officer(CPO) and senior chief petty officer evaluation cycles.
For the past decade chiefs, senior chiefs and master chiefs had been evaluated on a fitness report (FITREP)form identical to that used by the officer community. The new CHIEFEVAL clearly separates the two, incorporating the guiding principles as the performance traits.
"The CHIEFEVAL ensures our chiefs are evaluated based on the expectations we've traditionally had of them. The guiding principles reaffirmed those expectations. Incorporating them as performance traits was the next logical step in a process we started almost two years ago," said Master Chief of the Navy (MCPON) (SW/FMF) Joe R. Campa Jr.
Since their introduction to the fleet in September 2006, the guiding principles have been included in chief's mess training, chief selectee training, selection board precepts for E7-E9, the command master chief instruction and the Senior Enlisted Academy curriculum.
The guiding principles -- deckplate leadership, institutional and technical expertise, professionalism, loyalty, character, active communication and a sense of heritage -- replace the previous performance traits. Earlier traits included professional expertise, command or organizational climate/equal opportunity, military bearing/character, teamwork, mission accomplishment and initiative, leadership and tactical performance.
"This bold initiative led by MCPON Campa proves again the adage, chiefs run our Navy," said Rear Adm. Sonny Masso, commander, Navy Personnel Command (NPC).
"As a member of the wardroom, who has personally benefited from the leadership of the chief's mess, I look forward to making the most of this opportunity to align our chiefs' evals with the guiding principles."
Masso played an integral role in the transition from the FITREP to the CHIEFEVAL, as personnel at NPC have engineered the new form, which will use Adobe as a platform rather than the previous NAVFIT 98A program. Masso said shifting from one software application to another was not difficult due to the fact that much of the language transferred over verbatim.
"The form itself changed little," said Masso. "In fact, seventy-five percent of the language from the FITREP was transferred over to the CHIEFEVAL, only now it complements the new performance traits."
Campa said that language used for the first time in the CHIEFEVAL may technically be new, but the responsibilities and expectations have been around for 115 years.
"The 25 percent of the form that's different is critical," said Campa. "It's there that we formally introduce phrases like 'engaged on the deckplate,' 'total loyalty to mission,' 'driving mission accomplishment through the chiefs' mess' and 'actively uses the CPO mess as an open forum to act on command issues.'"
That language may be new to an evaluation, but not to our chiefs. Those are responsibilities CPOs have had for more than a century."
Campa delivered the CHIEFEVAL to NPC in March. Since then testing has been ongoing, and changes to the form were the norm as personnel in Millington worked with Adobe representatives to ensure the new platform was even more user-friendly than the FITREP form.
Once the CHIEFEVAL was deemed ready for fleet testing, it was sent to command master chiefs aboard every type of Navy vessel and to commands in every theater. Their feedback was forwarded to NPC to work out user-discovered issues.
"Any problems identified through fleet testing are looked at, and we're determining whether they need to be addressed now or down the line," said Jim Price, Branch Head PERS 311 and functional owner of the FITREP and evaluation processes. "It's a work in progress, but that doesn't mean it's not a good product now. It most definitely is, and the feedback reflects that."
The CHIEFEVAL will be ready for download from the NPC Web site, www.npc.navy.mil, and for use fleet-wide early this month. Training within the CPO community has been ongoing for several months, and Campa stressed that it must continue up to and after Sept. 15.
"Nothing is more important than ensuring every chief and every commanding officer across our Navy is fully up to speed on the CHIEFEVAL. We can't leave anyone behind in terms of how to use the form and what's expected of our mess," said Campa.
Personnel downloading the form will also have access to a user reference guide, which will give step-by-step instructions. If questions persist, COMNAVPERSCOM (PERS-311) customer service is available to provide clarification at (901) 874-3313/4881/DSN 882.
For more news from Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, visit www.navy.mil/local/mcpon/.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
